Powder Canyon

I've been hiking in them-there-hills lately, specifically
the hills called "Powder Canyon" located between the 60 freeway and my house.
Considering the fact that I/We live in a burgeoning megalopolis
it's quite suprising to find a place where one can look in all directions
and see nothing but blue sky, grassy hills, and the local wildlife
that has yet to abandon our concrete wasteland.

Walking the trails these past few days has been
an invigorating experience. The air is fresh and flows down
from skies on the verge of sunset; misty grey with blushes of pink
in between perfect powder blue near the horizon and a pale cool grey that
reaches high above the trees. These aerial watercolors find their own natural frames
in the local trees that line the meandering paths which lead the wandering traveler past a
winding creek, ascend soft rounded hills, and then descend again into new
hidden spaces alive with smells of the moist earth. Birds sing their songs
of a beautiful world, ants wander close to home; a lone black beetle
walks slowly across the path.

Monumental power lines paint a new picture in abstact as they stretch in parralel across the sky
supported by benevolent sentinel towers that keep a silent unending vigil.
Mud cakes to the soles of my shoes as I walk after the past rain.
As I return to my car, I stop next to the curb. Cakes of mud give evidence
that I am not the only visitor to have come this way. I scrape off my shoes,
one by one, and get into my car.

As I drive home, my thoughts are more in balance, and the
heater feels really nice.

The Sky is NOT Falling!

Every year we have an assembly for the kids called the Rock Salt Concert
in which this guy/musician/actor comes out to our school and sings and talks to
our kids, trying to inspire them to make music a living part of their daily lives.

He sings, he makes jokes, he makes up songs and sings them and has the kids learn
the songs and sing them. He makes funny sounds and gets the kids really excited.

OK. That's all well and good. I have no problem with that. I think it's great.

But, that's not all he did. At a couple of points in his presentation, (and he does this every year),
he stated his mission --- "If we don't do something, music is going to DIE!"

That is such a complete and utter lie! Music is not going to die, and in my opinion,
it's not even checked into the hospital, yet. In fact, music is so healthy right now, that
I bet it doesn't even have to take an aspirin a day.

Now, to be fair, at heart his real criticism is true. People just don't sing and make music
informally like they used to. Kids don't know campfire songs and most adults in general are
less than comfortable with singing or playing instruments. It's become a specialists game.
I could agree that we could profit by moving in the other direction. But, "Music is going to die!" just
seems an extreme analysis. It's like a fear that the sky is going to fall.

I see these overexagerated fears all over the place. Democracy is falling apart! Kids don't have any respect!
Video games are ruining our youth! Hollywood is a cancer of our society. They all have roots in
particular truths. There are problems in our lives and in society. We are fallen people who are living in
a world full of corruption. On a small scale, it certainly looks like things are out of control.

But in reality things are not out of control. God is in control of everything. As Christians we have no reason to be afraid.
In fact we have an obligation to hope. We have to proclaim the possibility of peace and freedom. We are the
only ones who really can. When my life seems like it is spinning into chaos or unmanageability, it is Always because
I am pursuing my own vision of things. I'm doing things my own way. When I get caught in my small little world, trusting
in my own "well reasoned" but really twisted perspective, that's when I am the most despondent and hopeless.

One of my favorite lines from our prayer book comes from the Thanksgiving Comunion prayers. It's the one addressed to the Theotokos. It says something like "...free us from our captive reasoning."
I love that. It's so potent. And it's freeing. I don't have to trust my own reasoning, because sometimes it's sick. Reason is only truly reasonable when it is healed by grace.

The world is not falling apart. We should be sad about the state of things in this world. I need to be sad about my own sorry state.
But, we needen't be afraid. We are in God's hands, and he knows what he is doing.